Hargreaves Hall during the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020-21

Hargreaves Hall during the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020-21.https://dc.ewu.edu/covid/1003/thumbnail.jp

The impact of experience on the behavior and performance of self-employed and entrepreneurs. Three empirical studies

Entrepreneurs can be studied from many angles. We will study the phenomenon of entrepreneurship from the management discipline. We aimed to gain more insight into the relationship between experience and entrepreneurial performance. Thus far, several scholars have highlighted the importance of learning when studying entrepreneurship (e.g. Harrison & Leitch, 2005). As Minniti and Bygrave (2001:7) put it, “entrepreneurship is a process of learning, and a theory of entrepreneurship requires a theory of learning”. The theory of learning they propose is that entrepreneurs learn from their experiences. In order to gain more insight in the relationship between experience and performance, we have focused on several moderators in the experience-performance relationship. We considered the possible different effects of the type of experience when studying the experience-performance relationship, i.e. industry experience, entrepreneurial experience and experience diversity. Furthermore, we analyzed conditional indirect effects on the experience-financial constraints relationship and experience-performance relationship. For example, we analyze how experience is related to a particular type set of skills important in obtaining funding and how this in turn is associated with experienced financial constraints

Swamp Money: The Opportunity and Uncertainty of Investing in Wetland Mitigation Banking

In recent years, the wetland mitigation banking program has emerged as a favored mechanism for protecting the nation’s aquatic resources while allowing for economically beneficial development projects to proceed. Mitigation banks generate wetland credits, which in turn can be sold at a profit to developers who need them to offset wetland impacts. The number of mitigation banks has grown significantly in recent years, and the market has seen an influx of institutional investment. However, investors face significant risks and uncertainty, and many prospective investors lack access to information about wetland credit prices—which are neither reported to the regulatory authorities nor made available to the general public—and are therefore deterred from entering the market. This Note proposes that the market for wetland mitigation credits would be more efficient if bank sponsors were required to report credit price information to regulatory authorities and if this information were made publicly available. Transparency of credit price information would incentivize both greater entry into the wetland mitigation banking market and improved planning on the part of prospective bank sponsors and developers alike. Moreover, by encouraging the establishment of more mitigation banks, regulatory authorities would have greater ability to ensure wetland credits purchased by developers more accurately match the type and functional values of the wetlands impacted

Communication and Social Influences on Foraging in Bats

Using social information can be an efficient way to respond to changing situations or to learn skills. Other benefits of foraging in a group, such as social facilitation, have also been reported. Furthermore, individuals foraging near conspecifics may use acoustic communication to mediate interactions. Many bat species (Order Chiroptera) are gregarious, and many tropical frugivorous bats rely on seasonally-abundant foods such that following conspecifics to a food source could benefit "followers" without harming "leaders." Animal-eating bats do not typically share food, but information obtained from experienced foragers could help facilitate development of prey acquisition skills in young bats. Additionally, communicative vocalizations serving various social functions have been reported in diverse bat species. Despite the opportunities for social learning and information transfer that many bats experience, few studies have attempted to determine if these phenomena occur in bats. Similarly, despite research on echolocation and some communicative calls, the context and function of social calls emitted by flying, foraging bats have received relatively little study. In this dissertation, I examine interactions between individuals in a foraging context and the impact of these interactions on the individuals' behavior. Specifically, I used pairs of big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) to test whether insectivorous bats can acquire a new foraging skill via social learning and what social cues might facilitate learning. I then describe the context of and attribute function to social calls emitted by bats in pairs. Finally, I examine the effects of social context on the foraging behavior of the frugivorous short-tailed fruit bat (Carollia perspicillata) presented with a food-finding task. My results provide the first evidence of the role of social learning (via attention to feeding buzzes and interaction with experienced individuals) in the development of foraging skills in young insectivorous bats. I also report a repertoire of social calls produced by foraging big brown bats and present evidence that males use social calls to defend food and increase their foraging success. Finally, I present evidence that social facilitation increases foraging performance in short-tailed fruit bats. These findings contribute to our knowledge of the social aspects of foraging in group-living animals

Optimal Active Vibration Isolation Systems for Multiple Noise Sources

The performance of active vibration isolation systems is limited by several effects, including sensor noise and signal filtering. It is shown in this paper that the joint contribution of those effects to the acceleration of the payload is minimized for a bounded set of parameters of the control system and the mechanics. Notably, a bounded optimal value for the skyhook damper is found. Furthermore, these minimizing parameters are found to be in the feasible design space. In a reference case, the RMS acceleration in the relevant frequency band is found to decrease by a factor of 22 using the proposed optimization method